Dell New Fingerprint Reader Owner's Must Read. Broadcom USH Issue effecting Preciosn M4400, M6400, Latitude E6400 and others

Wow. Ideastorm = junk.

 

Same here. M4400. Brand new. Problems with fingerprint. (And the wave drivers). I actually suspect it is the source of once-a-day sudden full-stop of my system.

 

I have emailed Wave sales, without much hope:

"I am using Embassy Security Suite on my Latitude E6400 with build-in fingerprint reader, Windows 7 64-bit, and it is obviously lacking some 32-bit features (most notably 'Personal Information Manager' and 'Document Manager').
I would like to know if you plan to enable these features in 64-bit version of ETS in foreseeable future?
And if the answer is positive - will I be entitled for free upgrade?"

and here is the answer:

"Hello Fabian,

My name is M***** M****, Inside Sales/Support at Wave Systems Corp.
Wave has only recently started supporting the 64 bit platform but with limited functionality. You will not get PIM or DOC MAN, nor are there any plans to support them in the future.

Sorry for the inconvenience."

Do they treat us seriously?

 

Nope. However, that wave stuff is complete cr@p anyway, even on 32-bit it's half broken, and the part that's not broken is mind-numbingly slow and awkward to use. Quite clearly not a consumer product...

 

Lets just hope that we get native win 7 support on the refresh of the E series and M series.

 

Sad. I tried to order my M4400 without the reader since I would never use it anyway, but on the discounted offer I selected I wasn't able to drop the reader from the config. Oh well.

 

Doubtful. Don't hold your breath on this one.

 

Hi folks

I've been battling Dell for weeks to get some meaningful response on this matter.
My slight variation on this is as follows:
Imagine if you will, the strange phenomenon of... a docking station! (a.k.a. port replicatior).
Then, if those designers at Dell can stretch their minds around an external monitor, keyboard, etc... and maybe even a mintior stand

I now have a (failry useless) M4400, docking station, monitor stand and External Dell UPEK finger print reader. It was my intent to use the Password Manager, which is something I have been doing for the past 3 years with my Lenovo and it's fairly functional Thinkvantage fingerprint-drive password manager. For the 80% of my time when I'm sitting at one of my desk locations, I've had a Thinkpad docking station and external fingerprint reader. Works Great!

... back to Dell...

I've been trying to get them to explain to me how a machine configured with this ControlVault/Broadcom P.O.S. can work with a closed lid (docked), since as we all know, the Embassy Wave suite (as implemented by Dell) WILL NOT recognize Windows Biometric Device (e.g. USB UPEK... even Dell UPEK!) finger print readers. Yes, I can use Win 7 for Windows login with my external reader. I STILL CANNOT UTILIZE THE DELL SUPPLIED PASSWOD MANEGEMENT SUITE!!! What is it with these guys???!!!

After hours on the phone, I get told to "log a call with Embassy". I don't see the point, since Emabassy website shows support for UPEK (TouchChip).. It's Dell's custom implementation of Embassy that's out of whack.

Anyone have experience with consumer action mechanisms? I don't mind parking myself onthe steps of Dell's HQ with a loud-hailer... any takers?

 

P.S. For what it's worth, I posted an item on (the other time-wasting Dell insitution called) "Ideastorm".
The title is:
"M4400 Fingerprint Reader & Software inoperable with lid closed. Ergonomic-Industrial design... ANYONE?"

If you feel up to it, promote the heck out of it, and we can try this again.

I'm thinking of a BBB report, to try get Dell to re-imburse my expenditure on the docking station, monitor stand and hinking great-big 28" monitor I bought to use with this (otherwise great) machine.

What a crock!

russ

 

Where do you propose to locate the fingerprint reader so that it is accessible with the lid both closed and open?

John